Word Association

It’s weird that when I hear a Don Williams song, any Don Williams song, I think not about my wife, but my friend Jonathan. Don Williams, for those of you unfortunate enough to not know who I’m talking about, sings some of the best love songs ever recorded. They’re sappy and sincere, which makes it a little weird that when one of these songs plays my mind wanders to Jonathan.

But let me tell you why.

Jonathan and I were college roommates for two almost-consecutive years. We shared apartment 129 at Lakewood Village with our other friend, Jason. Now, Jonathan was not only good looking, but just about the nicest guy I knew, so he tended to draw a predominately female crowd. On any given night there were usually 2-3 co-eds loitering around # 129, just hanging around.

Despite the attention, or maybe because of it, Jonathan didn’t date much and coasted through most of his school days pretty much unattached. But one semester he decided to develop a crush on one of our neighbors. I think they might have gone out once or twice, but nothing much happened. As guys are prone to do, the more disinterested the neighbor was in Jonathan, the more interested he became in her.

Now, it’s important to know that said neighbor was really only marginally attractive, slightly above average. I would say that among the throngs of girls who found their way in and out of Jonathan’s orbit, she probably ranked somewhere in the middle of the pack in the looks department.

The neighbor's name happens to be the same as one of Don’s best songs. So, naturally, Jonathan would play the song on repeat for hours at a time, over and over. It’s hard to get tired of Don, but Jonathan was pushing the envelope. This lasted a few days until one sunny afternoon he snapped out of it, ready to move on, forget about the unattainable neighbor and, at last, put in another CD. We all breathed a sigh of relief.

Then someone knocked on the door.

I opened it up and standing before me was one of the most confounding images I’ve ever served witness to. Our so-so looking neighbor was standing in our doorway, only now she was an absolute vision. I don’t know if it was how the sunlight was silhouetting her figure or the way her blue dress made her eyes dance, but in that instant Jason and I realized what our roommate had seen in her. We sat for a few seconds with our mouths open before she asked to use our vacuum cleaner or something. By the time she left, Jonathan was in the throws of a full-fledged relapse and Jason and I were following right behind him.

We reset the CD player. Disc 1, track 2, repeat.